“Can a purpose-built, OCC-chartered trust bank become the default banking rail for autonomous AI agents transacting under deterministic human policy?”
Catena Labs was founded in 2022 by Circle co-founder Sean Neville and former Circle SVP Matt Venables to build a financial institution purpose-built for AI agents. The company operates today through regulated banking partners while pursuing a national trust bank charter from the OCC, which it received conditional approval for in 2026. Its architecture combines identity, deterministic policy governance, non-custodial digital-asset accounts (via Turnkey), and stablecoin/fiat payments so that autonomous agents can transact under human-defined rules.